Replication Guide for The Civic Option?  Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Consuming Information

One main dataset is used for the analyses in The Civic Option.  The dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, contains the responses of participants in an online survey we conducted during the 2018 special mayoral election in San Francisco, California.  The text of relevant portions of the online survey is available in the Online Appendix.  The survey dataset (sfmayor_2018.xls) and its accompanying codebook can be found in the main folder, 2204 JEPS.

The following instructions will allow interested users to reproduce all tables and figures in the article and online appendix.  We have included a zipped file, TheCivicOption_combined.zip, that includes all files in the dataverse and retains our original file structure.  We have also uploaded copies of all individual files.  In running the command files, the user will need to correct the file paths, locating each file as appropriate.  All files uploaded to the Harvard Dataverse are listed and described herein.

All of the analyses in the article and supporting information were performed using STATA 13.1.  All of the analysis datasets are saved as text files, Excel (Microsoft Excel 2010) files or STATA files.


2204 JEPS

The file, sfmayor_2018.xls, contains the responses of participants in the online survey we conducted during the 2018 special mayoral election in San Francisco, California.

The file, sfmayor_2018_codebook.pdf, describes the variables in sfmayor_2018.xls.


Tables and Figures in the Article and Supporting Information

The Civic Option Table 1 and Figure A1

The STATA do file, Table 1 and Figure A1.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, and tabulates the statistics reported in the right column of Table 1 of the article.  The bottom of the file compiles and plots the distribution of Democratic, Republican and Independent respondents� ideal points, which are displayed in Figure A1 of the online appendix.


The Civic Option Figure 3 and Table A1

The STATA do file, Figure 3 and Table A1.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, codes respondents� preferences for mayoral candidates and conducts difference-of-means tests of the effects of information, which are reported in Table A1 of the online appendix.  The results of these difference-of-means tests are saved in an Excel file (Table A1.xls).  The bottom of the file, Figure 3 and Table A1.do, plots the results of these difference-of-means tests, which are displayed in Figure 3 of the article.


The Civic Option Figure 4

The STATA do file, Figure 4.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, and tabulates the statistics reported in Figure 4 of the article.  The bottom of the file creates the bar plot in Figure 4 that summarizes the choices that respondents made about what types of information, if any, to receive before registering their preferences for mayoral candidates.


The Civic Option Table 2

The STATA do file, Table 2.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, codes respondents� preferences for mayoral candidates and information choices, and estimates an instrumental variables model of the effects of information, the results of which are summarized in Table 2 of the article.


The Civic Option Tables A2 and A3

The folder, Tables A2 and A3, contains 25 files with demographic information about San Francisco and five other large American cities.  The file, Ranked Choice Voting in the 2011 San Francisco Municipal Election.pdf, reports demographic information about the San Francisco electorate in 2011, which is summarized in the right column of Table A2 of the online appendix.  The 24 other files in the folder report statistics from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates on the levels of education, household income, homeownership and population of San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Portland, Chicago and Minneapolis.  These statistics are summarized in Table A3 of the online appendix.


The Civic Option Tables A2 and A5

The STATA do file, Tables A2 and A5.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, recodes variables for respondents� characteristics, and tabulates the statistics reported in the left column of Table A2 of the online appendix.  The bottom of the file recodes variables for respondents� characteristics and performs the manipulation checks in Table A5 of the online appendix.


The Civic Option Table A4 and Figure A2

The STATA do file, Table A4 and Figure A2.do, opens the analysis dataset, sfmayor_2018.xls, recodes variables for respondents� characteristics and information choices and estimates a logit model of respondents� choice of whether to receive information, the results of which are reported in Table A4 of the online appendix.  We use CLARIFY to generate first differences of the effects of respondents� characteristics with 95 percent critical intervals.  The bottom of the file creates the plot of first differences in Figure A2 that summarizes the effects of respondents� characteristics on their choice of whether to receive information.

